


Shatter

by CheerUpLovely



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Family Feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-05-04 13:32:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14594097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheerUpLovely/pseuds/CheerUpLovely
Summary: Star City has a killer on the loose, who has crossed the line with their target. When Oliver Queen's loved ones become the target of an unpredictable serial killer, what will become of the Queen Family?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my new Olicity multichapter! I’ve been writing this one on and off for the last eighteen months or so but recently everything really started to come together so I’ve decided to start posting it. A huge thank you to @alexiablackbriar13 and @garbagechic for your encouragement on this one!

****  


_ I’ll sing it one last time for you _

_ Then I really have to go _

_ You’ve been the only thing that’s right _

_ In all I’ve done _

_ Snow Patrol - Run _

 

City Hall was silent, which was more than could be said for the rest of Star City on what would become a fateful Thursday afternoon for Mayor Oliver Queen. Already exhausted and pushed to their limits, his staff alongside the wearied members of ‘Team Arrow’ had slipped into theories which were vague at best, and their lack of answers was becoming alarming. It had been two weeks, and while the previous evening had presented them with three separate leads, by midday on Thursday the Star City Police Department had informed him that all three were useless, and Team Arrow had backed that up after their own investigations.

 

Star City was falling victim to a serial killer. The press was beginning to notice the patterns, and a lack of answers from City Hall was having ripple effects which would only end with a city in panic and more people getting hurt than necessary. It was bad enough that three people had died already, but the real alarm came from the discovery that not only had no one been able to identify this strand of toxin, it also wasn’t known how to stop it.

 

Undetectable, Felicity had said, when they had tested a sample of blood collected from the scene when the second body had been found. Whichever drug or chemical was being used in the poisonings, it hadn’t been picked up on any toxicology reports that the police had run, or even what Felicity had been able to work on with their equipment in the bunker. Oliver always became uneasy when Felicity came up empty handed, as there was very little in this world that Felicity Smoak wasn’t able to do. She’d enlisted the help of Star Labs in Central City, but with a minimal sample even they were making slow progress - if it could even be called progress.

 

Felicity had used her technological skills to encourage the police to send copies of all police reports to Star Labs to assist with their work on the toxin, but it did nothing to assure any worries that their killer may strike again. The police were working the case, Team Arrow were working the case, but no one was finding anything but random events which had no link, no common cause and no resolution. 

 

It was becoming alarmingly obvious that someone else would need to die for any further progress to be made. Usually, waiting out a killer to lure them into a trap wouldn’t be an idea that made Oliver nervous, but when there was no clue to indicate where they were going to target next it was difficult to step in and prevent it happening.

 

Which left a daunting realisation; someone was going to die. Their killer was going to strike again, and they did not have the knowledge or the means to prevent it from happening.

 

Oliver ran his hand through his hair, a nervous habit that wasn’t all that satisfying after a recent haircut. Felicity had encouraged him to keep some length for her own preference, so there was just enough relief to be found in the light scratch of her fingernails against his scalp at night, but not quite enough to fight off the frustration he was trying to ease at that moment. 

 

His office was often the place of dispute, and right now with his team and Quentin Lance going over what little information they had to hand on their non-existent suspect was no different. While their tones grew louder and louder, as if the tone of the room could fill the space presented by their lack of answers, Oliver remained quiet and thoughtful, dropping his gaze to the photograph frames that sat on his desk.

 

When he had first become mayor, there hadn’t been any personal possessions on his desk, but he also hadn’t fully expected himself to be a long-term mayor. It had always seemed a short term solution to try something new at bringing Star City to a better place while they tackled the same issues with their vigilantism, and while that hadn’t always worked and had often created more problems than it solved, Oliver had become one of the longest serving Mayors in Star City’s history (which wasn’t a hard achievement based on the previous cursed happenings that resulted in the mayor often perishing within two years of taking the job). He was eight years into the job now, and had no intention of stepping down.

 

He attributed his success to the people whose photographs sat proudly on his desk; his wife and his children. To the right of his phone unit, the happy smile of Felicity Smoak looked back at him from the photograph taken of them together at their wedding reception seven years ago. It had been Felicity’s mothers idea to hire a professional photographer, as most of the decisions at the reception had been, but now that he had the chance to regularly look back on his wedding photos Oliver was glad for it. Every time his eyes fell upon it, he couldn’t quite believe he’d spent twelve wonderful years with this woman at his side, and almost seven of those with her as his wife.

 

The photo beside his laptop was one of his children altogether, taken just six months ago at William’s birthday dinner. William had come from college for the weekend, where he was still mid-way through his second masters degree (he never seemed to be finished with learning, something that Felicity had encouraged in him since they had become a family). Beside him was Tommy, just a few days short of his sixth birthday, grinning at the camera with his father’s winning smile, and William was supporting their three month old daughter in his lap by holding her up on her feet. Unlike the boys, Maya wasn’t smiling as she had no idea what was going on, but with William away so often it was one of the rare photos of his three children together and Oliver loved it for that alone. 

 

Tommy had been their surprise baby, as Felicity often called him. A good surprise, but an unexpected one. They had still been in the midst of his trial as the Green Arrow when Felicity had found out she was pregnant, and Tommy had been born just as the winter frost had settled into Star City. With William still such a new addition to their lives they hadn’t gotten around to a discussion of kids yet, babies seeming somewhat impossible when they had leapt straight into raising a teenager, but Tommy had been the glimmer of hope they’d needed in a difficult time, and despite Oliver’s concerns William had welcomed his new little brother. To this day, Tommy idolised his older brother, and they didn’t see that changing anytime soon even with the age difference between them.

 

After Tommy was born Felicity had returned to setting up her start-up company, and when that had taken off more than she could have ever dreamed, the idea of having another baby had become a tabled conversation. Between his commitments as mayor and hers as CEO of Smoak Technologies, the idea of juggling a third baby was one that might just tip them over the edge of the well-oiled machine that their home somehow ran in, particularly with their night activities still just as prominent in their lives. 

 

Needless, Maya had been another unexpected surprise that they had set upon themselves after the week of the ear infections that Tommy brought home from his first week of school, and a bout of antibiotics which had compromised Felicity’s birth control, suddenly they were preparing themselves for a newborn all over again. 

 

Felicity had brought Curtis into a bigger part of her company again as her pregnancy with Maya progressed. She didn’t want to miss out on the first few months at home with her daughter just because of her company - as passionate as she was about her career, she was also passionate about her children and it was that same fierce determination she dedicated to everything that made her an incredible mother. Having Curtis on hand had enabled her to spend more time with both her children, and since Tommy was already at school when Maya was born, she got plenty of the same one-on-one time with her daughter that she’d had with her son. 

 

With the atmosphere in his office becoming tenser by the second, Oliver couldn’t allow himself to smile at the collection of his family framed on his desk and instead tore his eyes away from them. The exhaustion from their string of murders hadn’t been made any better by Maya’s decision not to sleep the night before, and that if she wasn’t going to sleep she wanted the company of her parents while she screamed. She had always been a very good sleeper, even from a few weeks old, but last night she had a fever setting in and had celebrated that inconvenience with a six hour bout of screaming until she had made herself sick on his shirt. Fighting back the sigh that sat heavily in his chest, Oliver stood from his chair and came around to lean on the front of his desk, perching on it as he drew the attention of everyone in the room.

 

“We’re getting nowhere,” he announced. “Let’s go back to the beginning, what do we have?”

 

“Three murders, all poisoned,” Dinah Drake responded first, the only police presence in the room considering Quentin Lance had retained his position as Oliver’s second-in-command at City Hall. She’d become a liaison between the SCPD and City Hall over the years, which made meetings like this one far less suspicious and kept a lot of unwanted attention off Oliver’s back considering previous allegations against him.

 

“The killer has access to a lot of dangerous chemicals, and he has to be highly educated to make this so undetectable,” Curtis added.

 

“So we’re looking for a professional,” Oliver nodded. 

 

“Or a scientist, but there hasn’t been any reported instances of other poisonings that match these ones, or any labs in the country working on anything close to this compound,” Curtis told him. 

 

Oliver held back the sigh again. Another dead end. “What do the victims have in common?”

 

“Nothing,” Dinah confirmed reluctantly. 

 

“There has to be a link.”

 

But as they reviewed the case files Oliver had been provided with by SCPD, there was no clear link between the three victims. The first victim was a stay at home mother to two young daughters, found dead in her car in a school parking lot in the city centre. The second had been a man in his late fifties, no wife or kids, found dead in his backyard in the Glades. The third an entrepreneur setting up her company in the richer part of town. Three locations. Three people who had never interacted with each other. 

 

Their only clear link was that someone had targeted and killed them.

 

“We’re missing something,” Oliver repeated for the fifth time that day, but there was a knock on the door as his secretary ducked her head into the room and brought them all to a sudden silence.

 

“Mr. Mayor, your wife is on line one for you, she said it’s urgent.”

 

He thanked her and circled his desk again, picking up his phone. “Felicity,” he greeted, only to be cut off by an emotional choke. “What’s wrong?”

 

The next few moments passed in a blur. He could feel a weight constricting on his chest while the rest of his body burned with a rage that bordered on numbness. It passed through him in a wave, and he vaguely heard himself mumble an ‘I love you’ before he was putting the phone down and bracing himself on the edge of the desk.

 

“Oliver?” John asked, stepping forward. “Everything okay?”

 

Oliver shook his head, standing upright again as he inhaled deeply. “I have to go to the hospital.”

 

\--

 

The next targets of the poisoning spree turned out to be multiple. Two children. A six year old boy and an eleven month old baby girl. Innocents with certainly no connection to the previous victim. Alive, but hospitalised with dangerous toxicity levels in their blood. Quarantined until the doctors could be certain that this wasn’t a contagion. 

 

The parents knew that it wasn’t a contagion. It was very obvious what this was.

 

Their killer had targeted Oliver and Felicity’s children, and somehow, they were still alive.

 

\--

 

After shutting off his phone again, Oliver stepped back into the emergency room triage area, where he and Felicity had been allowed to wait in privacy. For the moment the incident was contained but it wouldn’t be long until the press found out and then the hospital would be swarmed with reporters outside and Oliver didn’t want that. It was bad enough that the emergency room was unusually busy with other matters that morning, so through social media alone it wouldn’t take long for the city to find out that the mayor had been seen arriving at the hospital shortly after his wife. As busy as it was, he’d all but forced his way in earlier, finding Felicity in near hysterics with a lapful of forms asking about their children’s health, height, weight, allergies, any medications and a request to release their medical history from their usual pediatrician which would answer all of the above anyway.

 

Oliver had taken one look at the way Felicity’s hand was shaking over the papers and taken them back to the front desk, demanding to know where his children were and what exactly had happened to them, but he’d simply been told someone would be with them shortly to explain what was happening. He’d gone back to Felicity still shaking in anger and confusion and sheer fear, drawing her into his arms as they waited to hear what was happening to their children.

 

It was at least another fifteen minutes before a doctor eventually came out to explain what was happening. The words seemed to fall from the doctors lips too calmly, and they heard them in fractured, unsenseless terms. Their children had been taken for further tests, but this was certainly the instance of an unknown poisonous substance which appeared to have been ingested. 

 

They were asked endless questions that bordered on accusations as to what chemicals the children may have been exposed to at home, whether they could have gotten into something dangerous without them knowing, whether they had been left alone near toxic substances while cleaning and the underlying insinuations were enough to send Felicity into tears again as they both insisted they had a safe household that the children could not have ingested anything dangerous in. Tommy was a clever boy, and they hadn’t needed to babyproof their home when Maya had started crawling everything had remained in place from when they had Tommy.

 

Oliver heard what they didn’t want to say. They didn’t want to tell two scared parents that their tests on the toxin so far matched the unknown substance that had been used in three murders within the city. But Oliver knew enough through City Hall and the team that this was exactly what had happened.

 

Their children had been poisoned. Someone had intentionally tried to harm their young son and baby daughter. This had been a deliberate act. 

 

Now, Felicity was back in the chairs in the waiting area. Besides her was a pile of magazines and books for very young children but she was paying them no attention as she sat nervously twisting her wedding ring and staring into nothing. Oliver came back to her, taking the seat beside her but she didn’t notice his presence. She didn’t react to him at all until he placed his hands over hers, if not to ease the trembling in her fidgeting digits then to hide his own. 

 

“I made some calls,” he told her softly when she finally reacted and grasped his hands tightly. “Digg and the team are taking care of everything, they’re going everywhere the kids have been the last week and they’re going to find out how this happened and he’s going to get ARGUS involved. Your Mom’s flight is still in the air, but Quentin’s going to do what he can to keep the press away, and then he’s bringing her straight from the airport. I told Will to stay at college just in case he’s in any danger by being here, but that we’d keep him up to date.”

 

“He wants to be here,” Felicity knew, focusing her eyes on the doorway that prevented her from being with her children. 

 

“He does, but it might not be safe,” Oliver nodded. “Have the doctors come back out?” he asked her.

 

Felicity shook her head, fighting to keep her lips from trembling. “They won’t tell me anything. They just...I’m their mother and they won’t let me see them. They won’t even tell me when I can, I just…” she dipped her head onto his shoulder, drawing in a shaking breath.

 

Oliver’s arm immediately wrapped around her shoulder, holding her tightly to him whilst still gripping her hand. His lips found the top of her head, anchoring himself to her as much as he could while the rest of their family felt so far away. “They’re going to be okay,” he assured her, desperately attempting to keep his own voice from wavering.

 

She took a shuddering breath against him, and he could tell that she was holding back an overwhelming wave of emotion. Felicity was an excellent mother, and her children were her entire life. Being away from them overnight was still hard for her, especially as Maya was still so young. “Someone hurt them, Oliver,” she stumbled out. “They’re just kids. How could someone do this?”

 

Not for the first time that day, Oliver had no answers. He had to settle for saying nothing and kissing her hair once again, because there was nothing he could say that would bring them any comfort.

 

Because they both knew that this was more than likely a revenge attack against him. 

  
  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter Two

 

__

_ And I can barely look at you _

_ But every single time I do _

_ I know we’ll make it anywhere _

_ Away from here _

_ Snow Patrol - Run _

 

Silently, they sat, and silently, they waited.

 

There were no words needed because there were none that could make this any better. So, with their arms around one another for support, Oliver and Felicity waited for news on their children because waiting was all they could do. They waited, ignoring all urges to force their way through the doors to the trauma area to be with their petrified sick children, to jump over the reception counter and demand to be told exactly where they were, to take out their desperation on anyone and anything without consequence, because it wasn’t going to get them any closer to their children. All they could do was wait in the eerie calm of the hospital hall, clinging to each other and praying that their children would be okay.

 

But the waiting soon became worse than not know knowing what was happening. They grew restless in their desperation. Felicity had stood up and began to pace, wringing her hands into so many positions that Oliver was certain she was dislocating bones to do so. After a moment of watching her he’d found that he, too, was mimicking her actions at a loss of anything he could do which was helpful. He stood up, and as he did she stopped her pacing. She didn’t raise her eyes to his but she did move straight into his arms, anchoring the two of them together once again.

 

They weren’t used to feeling helpless, or having to wait and do nothing. In the dangerous world they exposed themselves to, there was always something that could be done. Felicity could busy herself with computers; running traces, writing code, hacking something, monitoring something, searching for something,  _ doing  _ something. Oliver would hit the streets, more often than not resulting in nothing but violence and a few extra bruises, but at least it was something. Whether successful or not, they could allow themselves a moment to draw strength from each other before focusing back on the task at hand and trying to be productive.

 

Oliver tightened his arms around Felicity, bringing her so close against him that he hoped they might find a small reprieve in each other, but nothing seemed to work. No matter how tightly she looped her arms around him, he didn’t feel the pain fading. The only thing keeping him upright in that moment was that Felicity wasn’t pushing him away; she was holding firm to the one belief that had always lead him on the right path - that they were a team, that they were stronger together, and that together they would make it through anything the universe threw at them.

 

But he still couldn’t do anything. He could hold his wife and not complain about the fact that her arms were steadily shutting off the blood flow to his upper body, but that didn’t do any good for the two tiny people he should have been able to protect.

 

Tommy and Maya. His children. Their children.

 

He was their father. He should have protected them.

 

With a sharp inhale, Felicity ripped herself from his arms and pushed away from him. He made no move to follow, he knew exactly where she was going. Several times she’d gone back to the reception desk and demanded to know why she was being told nothing about her children’s condition and why they hadn’t been allowed to see them yet. Each time he’d gone to follow her she’d reminded him someone needed to stay in case the doctor came back to update them. 

 

Instead, he fell back into the chair he’d been in before, rubbing his hand over his pounding forehead. Dehydration, most likely. Dehydration and stress. They’d been waiting for hours, even though it felt like days. He’d been here too many times in this hospital, waiting for news on his family. When Thea had been attacked by Ras, he’d sat in this hospital and waited to lose his sister, a horrific pain he’d experienced just a few years later when he’d visited her comatose form every day for months. Then there was Felicity’s shooting and paralysis, the winter they felt they’d never leave the hospital. Now his children?

 

How was this happening?

 

“Oliver.”

 

He lifted his head, recognising Quentin’s voice. He was still wearing his work suit, and while usually he’d stand and shake his hand, he couldn’t bring himself to, so Oliver waited for Quentin to take the seat next to him. “Any word yet?”

 

Oliver shook his head. “Felicity’s asking again, but…” he filtered off, knowing that her efforts were useless.

 

“We passed her on the way in, Donna’s with her now,” Quentin told him. “I know it’s not what you’re wanting to hear, but the press seem to have gotten word of it. The police are keeping them out of the hospital but they’re waiting outside.”

 

“Do they know it’s the kids?” he asked tiredly. 

 

“All they know for now is that you and Felicity are here, I checked the news before I left the office and nothing was said about the kids.” Quentin left it unsaid that it was just a matter of time. They knew the extent to which the press of Star City would go to get a story, and they’d been victim of the press too many times. It wouldn’t be more than a few hours before they found out that it was the Mayor’s children in the emergency room and then the connection with the recent attac---murders, would be made.

 

The thought made him feel sick. A murderer had gone after his children. How were they alive?

 

“How did this happen?” Quentin asked when Oliver fell silent. “What do you know?”

 

“Nothing,” Oliver muttered with a shake of his head. “We don’t know  _ anything _ .” He finally looked up at the man beside him, and if Quentin was shocked to see the helplessness in his bleak eyes, he didn’t show it. He’d had more than enough of moments like this with his own daughters. “Someone hurt my kids,” he said, his voice so soft, and yet filled with a rage that he reserved for those that wouldn’t survive the night. Having finally admitted it to himself, however, it began to sink in. He clamped his eyes shut at the rush of emotion, clenching his fists until his knuckles turned bone white. “Our  _ kids _ , Quentin. Our son, our baby girl...I don’t know what I should do. They won’t tell us what’s going on.”

 

Before Quentin could say anything, if there was even anything to be said, the commotion of angry heeled shoes against the linoleum floor caught their attention. Felicity, with her mother just a step behind her, had abandoned her despair and had leaned fully into the rage that Oliver had found himself sinking into. He could see it in the angry swish of her ponytail as it fell in line with her sharp, determined steps. The dull red lips which had been brighter that morning, only to fade throughout the day, were pursed tight as she walked towards the quarantine doors preventing them going any further into the protective ward of the emergency room their children were in.

 

Oliver was on his feet just as she passed him. “Felicity,  _ no _ ” he told her, placing himself between her and the doors with his back to them. His hands fell to her upper arms to hold her in place, preventing her going any further. “We  _ can’t _ . We have to stay here.”

 

“I’m going in there,” she said with a fierce determination, shaking her head and pushing against his hold.

 

“Felicity, you heard what they said-”

 

“ _ Oliver, let me go _ !” she cut him off loudly. Struggling against his hold all she could, even her feisty movements didn’t help her against his strength.

 

“No, Felicity, we  _ can’t _ ,” he told her again. He wasn’t trying to hurt her. Denying her the chance to be near her children when he knew that being separated from them was one of her greatest fears was hurting him as much as it was hurting her. But he knew that they couldn’t help the kids at the moment. They didn’t know what they were up against. All he knew was that they were up against a mystery substance that was killing people, and that somehow their children were still alive. He was hoping this would mean that this might finally help bring this plague of poisonings to and end, and the fact that they were still breathing meant a lot more than anything else they’d come to so far.

 

But he understood her pain because he felt it too. He was a parent being denied access to his children, and it hurt. It burned. It made him feel sick to his stomach because the people he loved most in the universe were close by, but not in his arms, and they were hurt. They were hurting and sick and scared, and they would be crying for the parents that weren’t with them. Tommy would be calling for them, and Maya would be too young to even understand what was happening. 

 

He wanted to be there. He was always there when his children were sick. There wasn’t a single bodily function of theirs that could faze him, after all he’d been through in his life. After surviving on Lian Yu without so much as a bathroom, it hadn’t bothered him when a two-month old Tommy got a stomach bug and emptied his bowels over his bare chest during a midnight diaper change. He didn’t mind sitting on the bathroom floor half the night when they were sick. He didn’t mind getting covered in snot, or having them cough directly in his ear, or walk the halls with them when they were too ill and miserable to fall asleep.

 

Moreso, there wasn’t a single pain in their home that couldn’t be fixed with a Mommy Kiss. Bumped head by tripping over a toy? Mommy Kiss. Dropping Will’s game controller on a tiny foot? Mommy Kiss. Imaginary pain in stomach to avoid going to school? Mommy Kiss. Learning to walk but falling down on the butt? Mommy Kiss. 

 

It broke him to hand over control to someone else. Because there was no substitute, in his eyes. These doctors didn’t know that Tommy liked having his back lightly scratched when he was having trouble falling asleep. They didn’t know that Maya fell asleep almost instantly with the back of her neck stroked with just one finger. They didn’t know that their children were tiny stubborn creations of life that were so much more than a sickness. They were not just this storm, they were the quiet waters in the centre of it. They were his life.

 

They were his everything.

 

Admitting that they weren’t the best qualified to fix these booboos was the hardest thing Oliver had done as a father. 

 

“I  _ need  _ to be in there,” Felicity insisted. “I  _ need  _ to be with my children.”

 

“We can’t,” he repeated again, softer this time as she stopped struggling.

 

Her eyes remained fixed on the door that separated them from their children, but she leaned into Oliver, ducking her head at the last moment and clinging to him once again. “What’s taking them so long?” she complained with a deep sigh of resignation while his arms shifted to hold her tight in his embrace again. Engulfed in his arms, she tucked her head to the base of his throat, where she could feel his deep swallow before speaking again.

 

“I don’t know,” he admitted weakly, as he too decided to hide fo a moment. He lowered his head, hiding his face against the side of her head. Even after being in the hospital for hours, he could still smell the soft tang of her apple shampoo.

 

It made him long for home. It was getting late in the day, and wasn’t far from the time where they’d have all arrived home for the day. Felicity would be back from the school run and helping Tommy with his homework, and Oliver would be on his way back from the office. He’d have been greeted by his daughter crawling towards the door to get to him first; Maya hadn’t taken her first steps yet, but she was starting to pull herself up on things and strengthen her legs in preparation for it. He should be arriving home to his family right now, not wondering if he’d even be allowed to see his children before the day was out.

 

Oliver had been in a rush that morning. Everyone had. The stress from City Hall and their night job ensured that they were all overtired and stressed out. He wasn’t sure if he’d spoken to Tommy over breakfast as much as he usually had, after only two hours of sleep. He wasn’t sure if he’d said a proper goodbye to him or if he’d rushed out the door with three quick kisses for his wife, his son and his daughter.

 

Had he said a proper goodbye to them?

 

What if it hadn’t, and it had been his only chance?

 

The sound of a door swinging open had all four of them looking up sharply, though Oliver and Felicity remained wrapped up in each other. Despite a doctor not updating them for at least two hours now, it was only an orderly who came through the doors, pushing a supply cart through without even making eye contact with them. Before the door swung shut behind him, they were offered a tiny glimpse down the corridor beyond that they weren’t allowed into, and the sound that came out of it.

 

A boy’s cry. A cry of a child so exhausted and scared. 

 

“Tommy,” Felicity whispered, bringing her hands up to her mouth. 

 

They were on the tips of their toes, ready to spring forward, through the doors separating them from their children and towards only the sound of that cry. Their son. Oliver felt the most dangerous need to reach out, the one he’d only felt since becoming a father; the same need he’d felt to close the gap the first time they’d watched Tommy cross the street on his own, and when Oliver had watched him walk along a wall three feet high whilst not entirely balanced. It was the need he felt to be between his child and the potential harm, only this time it wasn’t potential. It was very, frighteningly present.

 

Before they could move, a familiar dark-haired woman entered the space between them with wearied expression on her face. “Doctor Schwartz,” Oliver murmured, as she reached out and placed a hand on Felicity’s elbow. 

 

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to be here sooner, I’ve been working with the triage team,” she explained to them. Oliver felt the slightest ease as she revealed that; Doctor Schwartz was a familiar face to Tommy, at least, even though Maya would be too small to recognise her. Trusting medical professionals wasn’t always Oliver’s strong suit, and over the years she had become their chosen physician even though general practice wasn’t her chosen specialty. She’d kept secrets for them, performed emergency treatment without questioning the origins and saved lives more than they could even begin to thank her for, and knowing that she was making sure she was on the team working on their kids was a small assurance.

 

“Please tell me you have good news?” Oliver asked.

 

“Can we be with our children now?” Felicity asked over him.

 

Whilst they were hoping for a different answer, she instead gestured behind them to the consultation rooms. “I’m afraid that there is something we do need to discuss first. Please, follow me.”

 

Oliver met Donna’s eyes, who simply nodded in that unspoken understanding as they walked past their family and towards the consultation room that Doctor Schwartz was leading them to. His mother-in-law took a few steps closer to the doors they’d stood at before, as if taking up their position in their absence even though they wouldn’t be allowed in. Her cell phone was gripped in her hand, and he suspected she was the one keeping in touch with William at the moment now that Oliver’s phone had stopped vibrating with unread messages. 

 

Once inside, Doctor Schwartz closed the door behind them and invited them to take a seat. It was only a small office room, but they didn’t need much space for the three of them. Oliver and Felicity took seats side by side, Oliver’s arm falling around her back as Felicity’s hand reached over to grasp his free one. 

 

“What’s happening?” Felicity asked. “Why aren’t we allowed to see them?”

 

“There have been...investigations,” Doctor Schwartz told them, choosing her words carefully.

 

“What kind of investigations?” Oliver asked with a frown.

 

Doctor Schwartz was quiet for a moment before her own hands clasped at her front, setting aside her familiarity with the family from her professional duties. “I’m sure in your lines of work you’re very familiar with the situation the police are working on with the poisonings.”

 

Felicity leaned forward, releasing Oliver’s hand as she bought both hands up to cover her mouth. “Oh, God…”

 

“I’m afraid our initial suspicions were correct, and your son and daughter have both been exposed to that same toxin.”

 

“No,” Felicity shook her head, her eyes filling with tears from the sheer fear of what that could mean for their children.

 

Oliver felt his own fear giving way to an anger instead, taking in a shuddered breath as he felt every muscle in his body tense. “How did this  _ happen _ ?”

 

“You’ve already confirmed that the children haven’t been in contact with any chemicals within the home,” Doctor Schwartz confirmed. “Could they have been exposed elsewhere? Where have they visited in the last forty-eight hours?”

 

Felicity shook her head firmly. “Nowhere I haven’t been with them, except for Tommy being at school.”

 

“And no other children have come in with similar symptoms, so we can rule out exposure at school,” Doctor Schwartz nodded.

 

“We’ve only been at home, and yesterday after lunch I took Maya to the park,” Felicity recounted. “That’s all.”

 

“Have you used any new food brands, or visited any food vendors you haven’t usually used?” she asked.

 

“No. We do our usual grocery shop at Trader Joe’s and Tommy only has a McDonald’s on a Sunday.” Tommy’s weekly Happy Meal was a habit that Quentin had gotten him into, and one that Oliver was trying to reduce at least to every other week, but there was no distracting him from it. 

 

“Any powdered foods?”

 

“So this was something they ate?” Oliver asked.

 

Again, Felicity was shaking her head. “That can’t be, I’ve been with Maya for every meal and Tommy everything except his school lunches.”

 

Doctor Schwartz tried to give them as little an assurance as she could right now. “The fact that the children are alive and stable right now is a far better outcome than everyone else who has come into contact with this toxin, but it also means that if they haven’t eaten in any public areas and any instance originating in a supermarket would have far more outreach…”

 

Oliver caught on  to what she was suggesting, and it didn’t help him containing his anger. “Do you mean this happened at home? Someone came into our home?”

 

“That’s not possible, we have security, we’d have known if someone broke in.” Felicity insisted.

 

“Maybe we missed something, I’ll ask the team to go through the recordings.” Oliver muttered.

 

Felicity’s back suddenly straightened. “Wait, did you say powdered?” she asked, directing her question at Doctor Schwartz.

 

“Yes,” she nodded. “We think the reason it hasn’t been as severe in your children compared to adult victims is that it was compounded differently.”

 

Felicity turned back to Oliver, “What if it was that doughnut?” 

 

“What doughnut?” he asked.

 

“You left it after you stopped home for lunch yesterday, while I was at the park with Maya,” she reminded him. “We got back and it was out in the kitchen. It was powdered. I let Tommy have a piece of it before dinner since we were eating late, and Maya chewed on a piece of it too.”

 

Oliver shook his head slowly. “Felicity, I didn’t come home for lunch yesterday.”

 

“You did.”

 

“I didn’t leave my office all day.”

 

“Oliver, it was right there, and you were the only one who disabled the door alarm,” she told him firmly.

 

“Felicity, I  _ didn’t  _ come home yesterday.”

 

“What time did the children eat?” Doctor Schwartz interrupted them, drawing their attention back to her.

 

“It must have been around three-thirty,” Felicity guessed. “I didn’t want Tommy to ruin his dinner,  _ oh my God _ ...I poisoned my own kids,” she murmured, the reality dawning on her.

 

Oliver half turned in his seat to face her, grasping her hands tighter. “No,  _ no _ , you didn’t-”

 

“I  _ gave  _ it to them, Oliver!”

 

“Oliver. Felicity. I know this situation is incredibly stressful and I can’t imagine what you’re going through right now, but this is both a rare and dangerous situation. This toxin is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, and we had to run three tox-screens before it was even discovered. The children are stable for the moment but it is taking us a lot to keep them that way and they are deteriorating, and unless we can learn a lot about this toxin and find a way to reverse the effects, there is a concern that their bodies may not be able to cope with the effects.”

 

Oliver felt time slow down as Doctor Schwartz reeled off the medical facts. Usually when she’d tell him the more scientific aspects of health he managed to follow it relatively well, but given that his children were involved the words were foreign and unintelligible to him. He glanced to Felicity to see a similar expression of confusion on her face, a soft frown that was equal parts disbelief and disassociation. 

 

“What are you saying?” he asked, turning his attention back to Doctor Schwartz. 

 

“Are you telling us that our children are going to die?”

 

Oliver’s head whipped so hard to Felicity after she spoke those words that he felt a painful tug in his neck muscles. His stomach rolled. The dizzying sensation that had started to set in once the information had started hitting them was intensifying.  _ No _ . Their children couldn’t die, that wasn’t an option. That wasn’t something that was going to happen. Their children were their entire world, they couldn’t lose them. When he’d held each of them in his arms for the first time, he’d sworn to them that he would never let anyone hurt them, never let anything bad happen to them.

 

And he’d failed them.

 

“It’s a possible outcome that we’re doing our very best to avoid,” Doctor Schwartz told them, as Felicity leaned forward into her hands again and choked back a sob. “Doctors from the ARGUS organisation have been sent to assist, under the guise of the FBI. Do you consent to us allowing them to work alongside us?” she asked them.

 

“Yes, we do,” Oliver nodded, his voice more hoarse than he expected it to be. “Please, anything that’s needed.”

 

“I’ll go and inform them now. I know it’s not much of a comfort in the grand scheme of things, but I will be out as often as I can to update you personally,” she offered them.

 

He nodded numbly, standing up and shaking her hand when she moved forwards. “Thank you, Doctor Schwartz. We appreciate it.”

 

“Do you know when we’ll be allowed to see them?” Felicity asked, the same question she’d asked so many times without answer. Unlike Oliver, she remained in her seat. He wasn’t sure if it was the weight of the situation weighing her down, or whether she simply felt defeated in that moment; without their children, with little hope for their recovery.

 

“Once we can be certain that there’s no risk of the exposure being contagious, you’ll be allowed in with them. I’ll see what I can do to speed that along.”

 

“Thank you,” Oliver nodded, and she left the room without asking them to step outside with her, no doubt giving them a moment alone. 

 

“ _ Oliver… _ ”

 

Felicity’s broken voice tore him away from his thoughts, and he dropped slowly back into the chair at her side. Grasping her hands tightly in his own, he raised their enclasped hands to his lips. “They will come through this.”

 

The tears on her cheeks were shining beneath the harsh hospital lighting. “Oliver,  _ I  _ did this to them.”

 

“No, someone else did this to them,” he insisted firmly, he couldn’t allow her to think that any part of this was her fault. “You didn’t know what it was.”

 

“I fed it to them,” she choked out. “There was poison in our home and I fed it to our kids.” Her words disappeared into a mess of breathless sobs. 

 

He brought his forehead to hers, cementing them together in the hopes that she wouldn’t succumb to a full panic attack. She’d been known to suffer with them on occasion when she was under a lot of stress and suffering with the emotional impact of it. “You didn’t know. They will come through this.”

 

She drew in a shaking breath, and he felt her subsequent exhale against his cheek. “You don’t know that.”

 

“Our children are going to be okay,” he said with a determination that he wasn’t certain he felt, and with a hope that they hadn’t been guaranteed. 

 

“This isn’t a common cold, Oliver. This isn’t the flu, or a fever, this is...they’ve been  _ hurt _ .  _ Intentionally _ ,”’ she told him.

 

“I know. But I believe that Tommy and Maya will survive this.”

 

His belief was all he has, because the alternative was unthinkable. Losing his children wasn’t an option. He knew it was something they couldn’t survive. Certainly someone was losing their life throughout this ordeal but it wasn’t going to be the life of one of his children. It was going to be the person who had done this to them, because he was going to find them and he was going to make them pay for everything they’d done to his precious, innocent babies.

 

They remained helpless together for a few long minutes, which the conversation with Doctor Schwartz caught up to them, but neither of them wanted to remain hidden away for too long knowing that any moment now they might be called in to finally be able to see their kids. 

 

Felicity was the first to pull away, taking some calming breaths and wiping her face with her hands. Oliver spotted a box of tissues on the desk before them and pulled it closer, passing her a small handful to clean beneath her eyes with. She whispered a quiet thanks to him before she spoke again. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”

 

“Don’t say that.”

 

“No, this was  _ my  _ fault,” she repeated, letting him see the full extent of the self-directed anger and pain that she was feeling. “I am their mother, and I didn’t know that someone had hurt them until now,” she pointed out. “I’m supposed to  _ know  _ these things, I’m supposed to know when they’re sick and instead I got Tommy up and sent him to school like normal. What if…” She broke off with a shake of her head, the end of that sentence completely unthinkable to her. “I’m a terrible mother.”

 

Oliver’s voice was close to a growl when he responded. “Don’t  _ ever  _ say that again.”

 

“Do you really think they’re going to survive this?” she asked him quietly.

 

“How can you ask me that?”

 

She returned her gaze to his, giving him a pointed look. “Because you haven’t had that look in your eye since Maya was born.”

 

Incubators. Monitors. Tiny fingers. He shook the images away and regained his grip on her hands as he had before. “Felicity, our children are going to be okay because I am going to make sure of it.”

 

\--

 

Oliver’s confidence for Felicity’s sake wasn’t as strong as he wanted it to be. 

 

When they finally left the consultation room to rejoin their family, Felicity went straight to Donna and accepted the tight embrace her mother was waiting for. He was glad she was there with them, even though he didn’t want for any of them to be there. Donna had moved to Star City to live closer to them while Felicity was pregnant with Tommy, determined to be more than a grandparent who was visited every summer. Felicity had initially been nervous about having her mother so close, as she’d spent years convinced that the reason they got on so well was because they weren’t under one another’s feet all of the time, but having the shared experience of motherhood had changed things.

 

Donna had been instrumental in them getting settled when they brought Tommy home from the hospital; their seven pound, six ounces of screaming baby. He was a quiet boy now, but for the first few weeks their boy found his voice and he used it at any opportunity. Donna was there with her well-honed secrets of getting him to stop crying, and granted half of them were things that the baby books said with conviction not to do, but this was the woman who had raised Felicity Smoak, and Oliver had been willing to take that on good faith.

 

Now, Donna was their date night babysitter. She’d pick the Tommy up from school whenever needed, she’d have Tommy overnight when Maya was sick and up screaming all night. She still couldn’t cook, but Oliver was willing to turn a blind eye to their pizza nights at grandma’s house when it meant Tommy got almost hyperactively happy about spending time with her. Kids should get spoiled by their grandparents. He knew that his own parents would have spoiled the kids too, if they’d been lucky enough to have met them and known them.

 

One thing that had really touched his heart is that she treated William the same as she did Tommy and Maya. From the very beginning, as soon as William had become a part of their family, he had also become a part of hers. Felicity becoming his step-parent had also opened up a whole new side of the family to William, meaning that it was barely an hour into their wedding reception before Donna had been telling William that she planned on spoiling him rotten. Since that day, he’d been a grandchild to her. 

 

Part of him wanted to call William and have him there with them, but he knew that was the part of his mind that just wanted his children close to him so that he felt a little more in control of their safety. Logically, William was safer where he was, though he was certain that he wanted to be here just as badly under the circumstances. Despite the age gap, they were very close, the boys especially. 

 

With Felicity assuredly in Donna’s arms for the moment, Oliver turned to where John was waiting for him. He was grateful that his friend didn’t ask how he was holding up, because he was a parent too and there was no answer for that question right now. But what he did do was lower his voice and step closer to him.

 

“Oliver, what’s the update?”

 

Oliver took a breath and summarised what they’d found out from the doctor. “They think it originated from a powdered doughnut that kids ate part of yesterday. Felicity thought I left it in the kitchen but I didn’t go home. Someone disabled the alarm under my name and left it there.” 

 

To hear it so bluntly threw a startling reality into the complexity of the situation. It was easy to set everything aside to focus solely on the wellbeing of their children but there were also other factors at play; factors they were too busy being parents to act upon. 

 

John knew what was needed and nodded. “We’ll go through security, see who it was.”

 

Oliver had no doubt that the whole team were standing by, waiting for his orders but right know he was relying on John to fill that role. His place was at the hospital and he wasn’t leaving until he knew his children were safe. “ARGUS are working with the doctors.”

 

“Lyla’s made sure their best are working on this,” John assured him. “Some of them were already looking into it, now with the connection being your family they’re more involved.”

 

It was reasons like this that Lyla was a far more trusted leader than Amanda Waller had been. Sometimes they didn’t see eye to eye, but Oliver experienced that with many people, but he was certain that Waller never would have delivered a team of her top scientists to help his family. “Find out who got into our house.”

 

“Leave it to us,” John assured him, holding out his arm and gripping Oliver’s forearm. “You stay here with your family. Keep me posted, anything you need we’ll take care of it.”

 

“Thanks, John,” he murmured, grateful for his friends support as he turned and left the hospital. At least while they were in limbo at the hospital, the team would be searching for answers. If they could find out who was doing this and why they were being targeted, they would be one step closer to finding out how they could make this all stop.

 

Oliver accepted the fresh cup of coffee that Quentin handed him soon after, glad to see that Felicity already had one of her own. Together, they sat back down and waited for the next update they had, even though the waiting was destroying them. It was around an hour before the doors open and Doctor Schwartz came back out.

 

“Doctor Schwartz,” Oliver murmured, the couple standing to meet her halfway as she offered them a weakened smile.

 

“I have an update for you, and we have had the confirmation that this isn’t contagious through airborne methods or skin contact, so we can let you see your children very soon,” she told them.

 

Oliver felt Felicity sag behind him in relief. It wasn’t contagious. They could at least now be with their children.

 

“But?” he asked, sensing a continuation despite the small comfort.

 

“We are keeping them in separate rooms,” Doctor Schwartz told her. Your daughter is being moved to the NICU, which is better suited for her age and her needs.

 

“She’s been there before,” Felicity nodded, because that part didn’t phase them. The NICU had brought Maya home to them before, and they knew how attentive their medical team were, so having their daughter cared for under that scrutiny was a comfort rather than a frightening thought.

 

“Your son is in the general ICU area, but they’re still as close as we can keep them,” Doctor Schwartz continued. “The area is on the same floor and they’re just a few rooms apart.”

 

“If it’s the intensive care does that mean-”

 

“At this stage we’re taking every precaution necessary,” Doctor Schwartz responded. 

 

“What’s happening to them right now?” Felicity asked.

 

“They’re both very weak due to the vomiting, so the dehydration is starting to affect them. We have them on drips to deliver an anti-nausea medication and to get some nutrients into them and rehydrate them. Maya’s body is much smaller so we’re finding she’s having more trouble breaking out of the fever, so she’s our greatest concern as the moment. Tommy’s been very good at communicating where his pain is and what it feels like, and Maya’s too young to do that.”

 

The fact that Tommy was actively speaking to the doctors was a good sign, at least to his worried parents. He wasn’t fond of doctors and usually froze up on the spot. “How long until we can see them?” Felicity asked.

 

“Within the hour. The medical teams just want to have them set up in their new rooms now that we have a better understanding of their conditions and then we can let you in with them. For now we’re going to bring you and your family through to our family room in the ICU which is far quieter and more comfortable than this hallway.” Doctor Schwartz told them, and Felicity immediately stepped back to where the others were.

 

“Mom,” Felicity said, attracting Donna’s attention to her.

 

“Did they give you any more news?” she asked.

 

Felicity nodded. “They’re moving us all to a family room in the ICU so we can be closer, and we can see them within the hour.”

 

Donna’s face was awash with relief. “Oh, thank god.” She exhaled, grasping Felicity in for a tight embrace. 

 

She allowed the hug for a few moments before she stepped back. “Umm, anyway, the room’s for all of us so I wanted to come get you,” she explained.

 

“And how are you holding up?” Donna checked.

 

“Bad,” she replied, not hiding it for a second. “I did this to them, mom.”

 

“No, you didn’t,” Donna told her. “You didn’t know what it was.”

 

“Someone got into our house and left poison for our kids and I gave it to them.” It didn’t matter how many times she said the words, it kept sounding worse to her. 

 

“You would never hurt your children, Felicity. I know that, your kids know that, and most importantly YOU know that,” Donna told her firmly. “I know this is an awful, awful thing, but they’re going to be okay, I know it.”

 

“Oliver said the same,” Felicity told her with a weak smile.

 

“Come on, baby. You can see them soon,” Donna pointed out with a far more reassuring smile. 

 

Felicity nodded, and then turned back to Oliver. He’d already gathered up the light jacket and her purse which she’d discarded on an empty chair earlier and slung the both over the same arm. His other hand was extended out to her, waiting for her so she closed the gap and slipped her palm against his, knotting their fingers together. Stepping forward through the doors to the intensive care area took them a little closer to their children, and they felt it straight away. 

 

This was progress. They were seeing their babies soon. They weren’t contagious. Both were conscious. Both were fighting.

 

They had positives, which meant they had hope. Earlier all they had was speculation, but now they had something firm to hold onto.

 

Their children were alive, and they would get to see them soon.

 


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally got there! I'm on something of a writing buzz at the moment at last so I'm taking advantage while I can
> 
> Thank you so much Lexi (AlexiaBlackbriar13) for editing this for me from the grammatical mess it was when I wrote it.

**Chapter Three**

 

_ Light up, light up _

_ As if you have a choice _

_ Even if you cannot hear my voice _

_ I’ll be right beside you, dear _

 

An hour later, Oliver and Felicity were still no closer to finding out what was happening despite Doctor Schwartz’ assurances. The team flocked in and out of the hospital almost constantly with updates, but each extra piece of information was nothing more than an affirmation that their children were in an incredibly dangerous situation. It was clear that wanted to stay, to be with ‘family’ in what was so obviously a time of great need, but they knew that they had a far better chance of solving this with the team doing what they did best rather than everyone filling up the hospital corridor. 

 

Lyla was representing the ARGUS involvement and was frequently seen going in and out of the corridors they wouldn’t even allow the children’s parents down yet, but they were grateful for Lyla pulling her best from all departments to work on this. Moreso, they were grateful for Lyla coming straight back out to them and assuring them that she had seen the kids, they were conscious, and she had assured both children that they were right outside and waiting to come to see them.

 

They knew they were conscious; they could hear them crying.

 

Still, while they remained collapsed in their newer chairs, ARGUS led through a team of doctors and toxicology experts once the doctors refused to let the children be moved to an ARGUS facility. There had been a brief ‘discussion’, loudly, about whether or not they should be moved to ARGUS for more intense treatment, but the knowledge that no one knew what would happen and that it could be dangerous to move them with so little options in their hands, resulted in Felicity making the call not to move them.

 

Oliver held Felicity against him. She had leaned her head onto his shoulder again, their hands entwined on their laps as soon as they had been escorted to this quieter family room. Donna and Quentin talked quietly amongst themselves because with so much nervous energy, Donna couldn’t not talk, but they were the only ones with any words to say, meaningful or otherwise. The only time they would raise their eyes from their entwined fingers was when someone entered the room. It was the same update every time though; a continued rise in fever and still vomiting, and then the nurse would assure them they were nearly ready for the parents to come through and they would leave again, leaving them both to return to their shared silent thoughts and blocking out the rest of the world. 

 

It hurt more because they hadn’t been here all that long ago with Maya. Oliver could remember with a shuddering vividness the terror that he’d felt when Maya had been born. So small, so fragile, so silent… not crying, not breathing, not moving… it was like no other fear he’d felt before. The sight of his daughter coming into the world limp and covered in a blue-ish tinge was something he hadn’t prepared himself for, not even when the doctors had started warning them that they had to act fast because the cord was wrapped around her neck.

 

He remembered blindly following her incubator through halls they’d never had to visit when Tommy was born, having to leave Felicity behind because she wouldn’t stand for no one to be with their daughter, and watching them hook up their baby daughter to machines he still, to this day, didn’t fully understand the functions of. He just remembered them being so much bigger than her, too big for someone so small and so delicate. His daughter being brought back to life and being helped to breathe and she wasn’t even thirty minutes old.

 

For Oliver, the fear had been so new to him that he was sure he’d never feel anything like that again. Tommy’s birth had been so calm in comparison and there was nothing,  _ nothing,  _ that would make him feel like he was going to watch his children die again.

 

Except here they were, waiting to find out of their children were going to die.

 

His baby girl, again, in this hospital through no fault of her own and close to death. Their children had been hurt in the place where they should never have come to any harm, and he was helpless to the nagging voice in the back of his head, the voice that told him the blatant and obvious truths.

 

_ Daddy wasn’t there to save you.  _

 

_ Daddy didn’t do what he promised to always do. _

 

_ Daddy didn’t keep you safe. _

 

_ Daddy might not be able to fix things this time. _

 

_ Daddy failed you. _

 

“Oliver, Felicity.”

 

They looked up to the welcome sight of Doctor Schwartz standing in the doorway to the family this time. The previous nurses coming out to them had been helpful in updating them but at least with Doctor Schwartz they weren’t going to be spoken to as though their words had been carefully memories from their latest read of their childrens’ charts.

 

“Can we see them?” Felicity asked, her voice quiet as though she couldn’t bear to be told ‘no’ anymore.

 

Doctor Schwartz nodded and stepped back to gesture for them to join her. “Yes, come with me.”

 

As they walked past the others to leave the room, Donna tightly grasped Felicity’s hand, asked for her to give them a big kiss from Grandma and then remained in her seat, seeming more deflated now she was no longer trying to remain strong for her own daughter. Quentin merely nodded to Oliver as he passed, a silent assurance that he would keep in contact with the others and do whatever he could to keep things running smoothly in his absence.

 

For now, they could finally be parents.

 

\---

 

They were taken to Maya’s room first. It was scary, terrifying even, to see their daughter in such a fragile state now that she was no longer a newborn. Felicity had to stop momentarily in the doorway as she took in the numerous drips connected to her baby daughter’s arm, and the monitors displaying readings that were far from calm and steady. All the fight she’d had in her trying to get to the children before had left her and she stopped in her tracks, unable to take another step forward.

 

“Don’t be alarmed,” Doctor Schwartz assured her with a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Everything in this room is here to help her and to make sure that we can manage her pain.”

 

Oliver wondered just how her pain was being managed, given how upset his daughter audibly was. 

 

“Look at her,” Felicity simply murmured as they stepped up to the side of the hospital crib. 

 

Ignoring the equipment as best they could, they leaned in either side to their daughter. Maya was grizzling weakly now, no longer having the energy to cry like she both wanted and needed to, but she reached up instinctively towards her mother when she saw her. Felicity instantly reached down to her with both arms but Doctor Schwartz placed a hand on her arm to stop her before she could.

 

“I’m sorry, Felicity,” she said sadly. “We can’t risk anything becoming unhooked-”

 

She looked crestfallen, her arms still extended out towards her baby. “I can’t hold her?”

 

The doctor shook her head. “Not right now, I’m sorry.”

 

She stepped away to give them a moments privacy which they were grateful for; they’d been given enough health updates for their daughter to warrant needing anything explained to them at the moment. All they wanted to do was be with her, but to not be able to hold her was agonizing. Maya relied so much on the comfort of human touch, something they’d been deprived of immediately following her birth and skin-to-skin contact had played a major factor in both her recovery and their bonding with her. Taking that away when all they wanted to do was wrap her up in their arms and hide her from this world that hurt her was as painful as seeing her in this condition.

 

Felicity looked up at Oliver with a heartbroken expression. “I can’t hold her,” she repeated in a whisper of defeat.

 

“That doesn’t mean we can’t let her know that we’re here,” he pointed out. Ignoring the pointed look that a nearby nurse gave him when he moved further towards the monitors to get closer to his daughter, he took Felicity’s hand in his and brought them both down to touch Maya’s face. Felicity’s hand stayed there on her warmed cheek while Oliver’s drifted up to stroke the whisps of dark blonde hair. 

 

“Maya…” he cooed gently, glad that his voice didn’t break when she turned her face towards him and cried harder now that she had someone there to pay attention to her discomfort. “Hey, sweetheart,” he said softly. “Mommy and Daddy are here now, it’s okay.”

 

Maya’s tired eyes pried themselves open at his familiar voice, and it was obvious to them both how much of an effort this was to her, but of course, she longed for the comforting presence of her parents. Oliver wondered if she’d been able to sleep through any of this ordeal, this little girl who loved naps as much as her mother did. She must be exhausted.

 

“Momma’s here, baby,” Felicity assured her with a watery smile. “Momma’s right here.”

 

“Ma,” Maya cried, straining towards her.

 

Felicity knew this cry, the ‘make it better cry’, the one that she should always be able to calm because she was the mommy, but this time she couldn’t. “I’m sorry, baby, I can’t hold you,” she said, shaking her head. But Maya didn’t understand her words, she was too young and all she knew was that she was hurting and she wanted her mother’s embrace. She continued to cry when she realized she wasn’t going to get the assurance she wanted no matter how much she reached for it, and that only broke their hearts more. “But I’m right here. I’m right here.”

 

Maya grizzled and reached her hand up to take hold of the hand that Oliver was stroking across her hair, gripping it with her tiny fingers as if to pull him closer to her. “Da,” she sobbed.

 

“Daddy’s here too,” he told her softly. He could only watch helplessly as his daughter tugged weakly on his hand, and he changed the way that his arm rested on the side of the crib so that he could stroke the top of her hand - one of the only comforts he could offer other than his voice. “Is Daddy’s girl sick? You’ll feel better soon, baby girl, I promise.” 

 

Felicity’s eyes shot up to Oliver’s. Could he really promise that? 

 

“Felicity…”

 

She shook her head and hurriedly looked back down at their daughter instead, who was now attempting to cover herself with Oliver’s arm. “It’s not the first time we’ve not been allowed to hold her,” she remembered, unable to shake the reminder of her being whisked away after birth and how they had needed to wait until her breathing had stabilized overnight before they were allowed to hold her.

 

“That doesn’t make it any easier,” Oliver sighed, wishing that he could let his instincts take over and just pick his daughter up and carry her away from all this madness. As she pulled his hand against her again, he could feel just how high her fever had risen and it was frightening.

 

“No,“ Felicity agreed. “If anything, it makes it worse.”

 

They stayed with Maya as long as they could, whispering gentle words to her until she had begun to fall asleep. They were grateful for that; as much as they needed to see Tommy, having seen Maya in this condition it would be hard for them both to go to their son and leave her alone. It was only when the little fingers wrapped around her father’s hand became limp and she was sleeping as peacefully as she could that the nurses took over and Doctor Schwartz lead them towards their son instead.

 

Seeing Tommy was no more reassuring to them, however. Whereas Maya was now in a fitful sleep, Tommy was lying on his side and coughing hoarsely from what had to be a very recent fit of vomiting given that the nurse at his side was still holding a container right beside him. 

 

Felicity didn’t hesitate in the doorway this time. Within seconds of assessing the scene before her, the hands that held him comfortably in position were his mother’s. She couldn’t bear to see someone who didn’t know how much her brave son hated being physically sick attempting to comfort him. 

 

“Mom,” he croaked when he realized who was holding him. 

 

“I’m here, honey,” she assured him, as Oliver came to sit on the other side of the bed, taking the container filled with his vomit from the nurse and holding it in the same place the nurse had been. 

 

“Mom, it really hurts,” he complained, wrapping his arm tighter around his stomach.

 

“I know your stomach hurts, Tommy, I know,” she murmured, kissing the top of his head and rubbing his back. 

 

“It hurts  _ everywhere _ .”

 

Oliver smoothed his hair down out of instinct. That moment his hair had been so tamed, but now it was fluffed in every direction and held in place by the sweat soaking his body. 

 

“Dad?”

 

“I’m here, buddy.”

 

“I’m not well, Dad,” he said, instantly trying to make himself look braver in front of his father. Oliver’s presence alone ignited the change between ‘hurting everywhere’ and ‘not well’. Oliver had to smile weakly at his innocence because beneath all of this his boy was there, and as long as he could see his boy beneath this madness then his boy would come out of this. They both would, he’d find a way to make sure of that. 

 

But Tommy didn’t really know what was happening to him. He didn’t know that someone had done this to him. Thankfully, while his imagination was wild and creative, Oliver was confident that his son would never have imagined something like this. “I think you’re right. Think we can get you better?” Tommy chose that moment to cough and reach over the bowl again, but afterward, he nodded at Oliver. “That’s my boy.”

 

Tommy curled back against Felicity, reveling in the comfort that they could offer him. Because he was bigger, it was easier to slip around his IVs and be careful not to dislodge them. “I wanna go home,” he whined. “I don’t like it here.”

 

“I know you don’t, but it’s important that we’re here with the doctors right now, okay?” Felicity told him, ignoring the fact that she wanted nothing more than to take her son home right now and have him tucked into his own bed. 

 

“I don’t like doctors.”

 

“They’re just here to help you,” Oliver assured him, rubbing his son’s knee and calf muscle when his exhausted boy slung his legs over his father’s lap. “They’re going to make you better.”

 

“Can’t you make me better at home like last time?” he asked.

 

Felicity’s eyes darted up to the ceiling for a moment, still struggling with the knowledge that this wasn’t normal. This wasn’t how children were supposed to be sick. They were supposed to get the sniffles, a bit of a cough, a cold and maybe at worse the flu. They weren’t supposed to be hurt like this.

 

When she looked back down she met her son’s pleading eyes. Take me home, mom, he was asking. It broke her heart that she couldn’t do that. “Sometimes Moms and Dads need some help from doctors,” she tried to explain.

 

Tommy was quiet for a moment, sinking back into his arms as he looked instead at his father. “Is Maya sick too?”

 

“Yes, she is,” Oliver told him honestly. “We went to see her, to help her fall asleep.”

 

“Did I get her sick?” he asked worriedly.

 

“No, Tommy,” Oliver told him firmly. “None of this was your fault.”

 

“She was screaming a lot. I heard her.”

 

While they were about to assure him further that he did not make his sister sick in any way, Doctor Schwartz stepped back into the room and interrupted them. Though the look on her face was regretful, they couldn’t ignore the intrusion knowing that the man beside her was one of the ARGUS medical support that had been sent in to assess the children. 

 

“May we please speak with you both outside?” she asked quietly.

 

“We’re just going to talk to the doctor, honey,” Felicity told him, firmly kissing the top of his head afterward. “We’ll be right outside, okay?”

 

Leaving Tommy while he was awake, and watching them leave him was much harder, but they needed to be informed of what was happening to them. Doctor Schwartz pulled the door closed but didn’t shut it all the way, ensuring that while Tommy was out of earshot, they could still see him for their own assurances. They weren’t alone either. Beside the ARGUS medic, Lyla was beside him and John was at her side. Donna and Quentin were also there, hovering close to Maya’s room and Felicity wondered if they might have been watching over her while they were with Tommy. 

 

“How are they?” Felicity asked. “Are they improving?”

 

“At the moment we’re still treating them as critical patients,” the ARGUS medic took over without even glancing at Doctor Schwartz. “If it’s true that the doughnut was the source of the toxin and that neither of the children ingested the entire item, then they haven’t consumed an amount deadly enough to kill them as quickly as the person responsible intended. Your daughter has been most affected, as even though she’s only ingested a small amount, her immune system hasn’t fully developed yet and her body isn’t fighting the toxin as well as we’d like.”

 

Maya’s immune system wasn’t fighting at its hardest on the best of days. In the months after her birth she’d been sick a lot, a side effect of her traumatic birth, and knowing that she was struggling with the toxin was making it all the harder for her body to cope. 

 

“What about Tommy?” Oliver asked, reaching across to squeeze his hand on Felicity’s shoulder. 

 

“We gave him some medication to stop the vomiting, which should give him the chance to rest, but the fever hasn’t decreased. In fact, it seems to still be rising slowly.”

 

“But he’s awake, that’s good, right?” Felicity asked. 

 

“It’s deceptive,” Doctor Schwartz explained gently. “Not all things are that simple, especially when there is a toxin involved.”

 

“It’s definitely the same toxin used in the murders?” Oliver asked. 

 

“Yes, the scientists ARGUS sent in have been identified the same markers extracted from the previous victims.”

 

Victims. Of course. No one else had survived this. 

 

“So what happens now?” Oliver asked, running his free hand over his face. He needed action. He couldn’t just have everyone standing around realizing what was wrong, what they needed was to be told how to fix this. “How do we save them? How do we make this stop?”

 

“We need time,” the ARGUS doctor told them. “And most importantly, we need an antidote.”

 

“Is there an antidote?” he asked, turning his glance more towards John and Lyla more than the doctors, desperately hoping that his friends had found out something during the last hour. 

 

It was Lyla that stepped forward with a growl threatening under her words. As a mother herself, she was one of the most fierce women they could have fighting in their corner at that moment. “Our team is working on finding one,” and God helps anyone who stood in their way. “You said you needed time - how much time do you need?”

 

“As much as we can get.”

 

“You don’t know?” Oliver asked incredulously.

 

“Sir, we’re doing all we can-”

 

“All you can?” he repeated. “That’s not good enough!” 

 

“Mr. Queen-”

 

“Oliver-” Felicity started quietly. 

 

“ _ No _ ! No, it’s not good enough,” Oliver shouted. “You’re doctors, you’re supposed to save people. You’re supposed to save my kids!”

 

“That is what we’re trying to do,” the ARGUS doctor told them before he turned on his heel and left them.

 

In his absence, Oliver felt Felicity wrapping her arms around him. He clung to her, taking a few heavy breaths to try and calm his raging heart. “Oliver, shouting at them isn’t going to do anything,” she murmured, her quiet words only for him. 

 

“I’m sorry, I just...I feel…”

 

“Helpless,” she finished for him. “I know. I’m feeling it too.”

 

He took a deep breath, remembered that he wasn’t going through this entirely alone and placed his hands back on her shoulders. “Are you okay?” he asked her quietly. 

 

She shook her head, her eyes tearful again. “They’re just kids.”

 

“I know.”

 

“They don’t deserve any of this.”

 

“Felicity -”

 

“The doctors don’t think they’re going to pull through, do they?” she whispered fearfully. 

 

“They will,” he told her, as confidently as he could muster. “Tommy and Maya will survive this.”

 

“They have to,” she pleaded. “I don’t know what I’d do if-”

 

“They’re going to be okay,” he urged again. “In a week’s time, everything will be back to normal. Tommy’s going to be back at school, Maya’s going to be starting to walk. They’ll be okay.”

 

Felicity just looked at him as if he were clinically insane, shaking her head as the tears gathered once again at the corners of her eyes. “Every other person exposed to this toxin has died and now… now it’s our  _ kids _ , Oliver. How are you not  _ terrified _ ?”

 

“I am,” he agreed with her. “But I have hope.”

 

With those words, she leaned against him once more. She didn’t look up again until she felt her own mothers hand on her back, Donna embracing her the second she leaned out of Oliver’s arms. Then she took a steadying breath and looked between the doors that each of their children were behind. “Our son in one room and our daughter in another….they aren’t even together,” she scoffed out as if the idea were unthinkable. “We can’t leave them alone.”

 

“We take a room each, and we’ll swap every few hours,” Oliver suggested, knowing that now Donna and Quentin had been cleared to be through with them that they could find a way to make sure they were never leaving their children alone. “Then they’ll know that we’re both here for them.”

 

“And they won’t be alone,” Felicity whispered, her eyes back on the window that allowed them to see into Tommy’s room. Despite the doctors hope that he would stop vomiting again he was already gripping his stomach in cramps that she recognized from last year’s stomach flu.

 

“No,” Oliver agreed, stepping in place behind her. “Never.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Original tumblr post: http://yespleasehawkeyee.tumblr.com/post/173743794966/shatter-chapter-1-olicity
> 
> tumblr: yespleasehawkeyee  
> twitter: ghostfoxlovely


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